Proven across some of the UK’s most complex transport networks, from rolling stock identification to passenger access
Rail infrastructure operates at a scale and pace that makes manual asset tracking impractical. Thousands of assets in constant motion across multiple operators, depots and track networks; each on safety-critical, each one requiring accurate identification. With an RFID system, tags are read automatically as vehicles and assets pass fixed reader points. Without line of sight or operator intervention and reducing the risk of manual error. When managing large, distributed fleets, those marginal improvements transform how the whole operation runs.
When a wheel flat alert fires, the clock starts. Before RFID, identifying the exact carriage meant cross-referencing head codes against diagram sheets. And if trains had been swapped due to service disruption, there was a real chance of identifying the wrong vehicle.
East Midlands Railway fitted RFID tags to carriages across its fleet and installed readers at strategic track points. Now, the carriage number comes through automatically.
Paul Caffrey; Fleet Engineering Manager | East Midlands
London Underground operates over 30,000 escalator steps across its network. Each one needs testing at least once a year, but with overnight maintenance windows limited to a few hours, knowing which steps had already been tested was a labourious challenge they couldn’t afford. In some cases, steps had to be removed simply to identify them.
CoreRFID tagged all 92 steps on the Number One escalator at St Paul’s station and developed a system to read data while the escalator ran at normal speed.
London Underground Asset Engineering.
London Underground has since rolled the system out across the network.
The Caledonian Sleeper connects London with key cities across Scotland, running overnight services where the passenger experience is closer to a hotel than a train. Security and access control needed to reflect that. Cabin access managed by keycard, seamlessly and reliably, across a fleet of sleeping carriages.
CoreRFID supplied 100,000 RFID access cards for the service, with the system managing both platform access and onboard security.
Graham Kelly; Serco Caledonian Sleeper
Rail operators manage significant inventories of tools, equipment and rolling stock, all of it subject to inspection, maintenance and service records. Without automated identification, keeping track of what’s been services, what’s due and where everything is requires substantial manual effort.
Network Rail uses RFID to track its rolling stock and differentiate its vehicles from those of other operators. Reader infrastructure at key points does the work automatically.
Richard Harrison, CoreRFID
